JHYM Media Commitment

We take our photo and digital media commitment seriously. Our two primary intentions are to keep young people safe and savvy online, and to honor and preserve the integrity and spirit that covers our time in community.  

JH'er with camera

“Photographs can be a great way to celebrate and extend our community. Posting some on our website lets others get a sense of who we are and what we do. We are happy to share those things. However, some things that happen are private to our community. Also, there are times when taking photographs can interfere with the activity of the moment.” (Photo by Buddy Baker-Smith)

Other specific points, which the community observes and reviews regularly, include:

  • Full names of JH’ers are never displayed online.
  • No videos are ever taken.
  • No photos are taken of people sleeping, in worship, or in our small groups.
  • Before copying a photo to another social media site, we get permission for everyone in the photo to do so, honoring their wish to be tagged or not.
  • The retreat coordinator has the final responsibility for deciding what photos do and don’t go online. Everyone else in the community’s responsibility is to check the photos out, and to let the coordinator know if there are any to be removed. The coordinator will take them down immediately.
Buddy Baker-Smith with camera
  • Only the staff photographer(s) and JHYM-ers who are mentored by them take photographs at JHYM.
  • Staff photographer(s) have a special sheet of instructions which the community helped to write. The instructions can be downloaded below.
  • We check in with the community at every retreat to ensure we have a current list of Friends who have not consented to having their photos taken and/or published.

(Photo by Kevin Lee ©2019)

"We all make mistakes. If we see an image of ourselves posted that we don’t like, we (politely) ask the person who posted it to remove it. Likewise, if we are asked to remove something, we try to do it graciously. We forgive each other. This is a work in progress, and we will continue to discern consensus and clarity about it with honesty, deep listening, humor, and love for each other and our community.” 

All quotes are from a minute approved by the JHYM Retreat Community, December 2011

File Downloads

Staff Photographer Guidelines